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Single Source Website for Full Spectrum Access Rick Ells University of Washington [email protected] http://staff.washington.edu/rells/ October 16, 2007 HighEdWebDev2007 Across the spectrum People can access your Web content with a wide range of devices. Can they read it? Is it useful to them? October 16, 2007 HighEdWebDev2007 UW Home Page on FireFox October 16, 2007 HighEdWebDev2007 Single source • How far can you go with a single source store in supporting the growing range of access devices? • How far do you want to go in supporting the growing range of access devices? October 16, 2007 HighEdWebDev2007 Device independence • Standards based designs are flexible – separation of content and presentation – CSS control of presentation • Device independence has been a basic principle Web technology since the beginning October 16, 2007 HighEdWebDev2007 WAP and XHTML MP • Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) – WAP 1 • Wireless Markup Language (WML) • Dying rapidly, no new WML development – WAP 2 • XHTML Mobile Profile • “Nearly all devices sold today are WAP 2.0 devices and they can access ‘ordinary’ sites, not just XHTML-MP and WML sites” Cameron Moll October 16, 2007 HighEdWebDev2007 The mobile context • Is the phone mobile, or the user? • When you are mobile, what kinds of tasks do you want to do? Photo from cs4fn.org October 16, 2007 • Tasks immediately relevant to now, here, what’s happening HighEdWebDev2007 Miniaturized or mobilized? SouthWest Airlines Mobile Check In Page October 16, 2007 HighEdWebDev2007 One design for all? Full size graphical browsers • • • • • Valid, standards based code Semantic markup Structure content Separate content and presentation Control presentation with CSS Small screen mobile devices Avoid know hazards • Do not rely on cookies • Do not rely on embedded objects or scripts • Do not use tables for layout • Do not nest tables • Do not use frames • Organize content so that it may be read without stylesheets • Keep page size within memory limitations of the accessing device W3C Mobile Web Initiative (http://www.w3.org/Mobile/) Strongly contrasting design approaches! October 16, 2007 HighEdWebDev2007 UW Home Page on a Palm TX Flex design flowing into a small space October 16, 2007 HighEdWebDev2007 Technology will fix things? • The capabilities of mobile devices are rapidly improving • Standards-based sites will be usable on more and more devices – – – – Standards compliant Validated Div and semantic structure Separation of content and presentation October 16, 2007 HighEdWebDev2007 What iPhones want Supported • HTML 4.01 • XHTML 1.0 • CSS 2.1 and partial CSS3 • ECMAScript 3 (JavaScript) • W3C DOM Level 2 • AJAX technologies, including XMLHTTPRequest October 16, 2007 Not supported • • • • • • WML Mouse-over events Hover styles Java applets Flash Plug-in installation HighEdWebDev2007 UW Home Page on an iPhone Just pinch open to zoom in October 16, 2007 HighEdWebDev2007 Use “media” to target formatting? • Stylesheet with a media type of handheld <link href=“mobile.css” rel=“stylesheet” type=“text/css” media=“handheld” /> • Styling appropriate to a mobile device, including turning off display of some divisions #ads {display: none; } • Seems to offer a simple way to sense device type October 16, 2007 HighEdWebDev2007 Problems with “Handheld” • Spotty implementation (not widely or consistently used) • Too general – Wide variety of mobile devices identify themselves as “handheld” – iPhone identifies itself as “screen” – Apple recommends basing conditional styles for the iPhone on screen size, not media type October 16, 2007 HighEdWebDev2007 Device detection • Check user agent string from mobile device • Compare to table of device types – Wireless Universal Resource File (http://wurfl.sourceforge.net/) – Contains XML data of device characteristics – Generate page appropriate to device abilities October 16, 2007 HighEdWebDev2007 Emerging Strategy Device Detection • Standards based single source for conventional browsers and newer PDAs and smartphones • Use device detection to send appropriate pages to less capable devices and small screens October 16, 2007 HighEdWebDev2007 Alternative strategy • Maintain two separate stores? Device Detection – When is it appropriate to develop an independent set of pages for small devices? October 16, 2007 HighEdWebDev2007 What pages should be fullspectrum functional? • Auth/auth • Directory • Calendar • News • Contacts • Emergency information October 16, 2007 HighEdWebDev2007 Google Calendar on a Palm TX October 16, 2007 HighEdWebDev2007 Weblogin on a Palm TX October 16, 2007 HighEdWebDev2007 Conclusions • Standards-based methods cover a wide range of devices • Mobiles are used in a different context, requiring different designs – Frequent use during the day for brief periods each time – Provide services for here, now, and what’s happening • Small mobiles may require separate pages to support their different function October 16, 2007 HighEdWebDev2007 Thoughts • Single source for full spectrum access is possible, but it will get complicated if you are to fully support the best role of services delivered on small devices • Key pages should be usable by the full spectrum of devices – Core interactive services (directories, calendars, auth/auth pages) • Rich media and rich applications are designed for specific parts of the spectrum or families of devices – Apps provide higher interactivity, but are tailored to specific devices October 16, 2007 HighEdWebDev2007 Tri-spectrum thinking Screen size is only one dimension of the design space of Web delivered information and services. October 16, 2007 HighEdWebDev2007 Deeper thoughts • Mobile devices are about users who are mobile – The devices will keep changing and improving • The browser is not the Web – Applications can connect to the APIs of services, delivering information without the use of a browser October 16, 2007 HighEdWebDev2007